Welcome to Louisiana Saturday Night, when we are hosting a runoff in the party primaries for U.S. Senate. Expect a low-turnout affair tonight, with early voting suggesting 14-17% turnout when it's all said and done.
Why the low turnout? Most of the excitement was about getting U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy out of office. Since he didn't qualify for the runoff... Mission accomplished, as far as most voters are concerned. Their job is done. But the race for the party nomination for the GOP has been ugly, with State Treasurer and original member of the Congressional Freedom Caucus John Fleming taking the brunt of a lot of attack ads in this race. Congresswoman Julia Letlow has kept it clean, but a lot of PAC money has gone in on attacking Fleming.
Letlow carries the endorsement of President Donald Trump, but that endorsement has been fairly muted in the runoff. Aside from a video statement early in the runoff campaign and a tele-rally featuring a pre-recorded message from the president, Trump's attention has been focused elsewhere. Fleming, meanwhile, may not have that endorsement, but he did previously work for the Trump administration and has a voting record from his years in Congress that can't be ignored.
The biggest story? Letlow came out of the primary with a 17-point lead, but all recent polling shows this one neck-and-neck. If Fleming wins, don't believe any media spin that Trump is losing his grip on the party. This election has been filled with a lot of drama in the state that has little to do with the Trump agenda. Issues like cabon capture sequestration, dark money, and more have dominated the state's political scene for the past month, and voters have been wrestling with a tough decision.
On the Democrat side, the heavy favorite is a black farmer, business owner, and gun owner in Jamie Davis. He came out of the primary with almost enough votes to make it without a runoff. He has the state party's endorsement and a ton of momentum.
Here are the GOP runoff results:
And the Democrat runoff results:
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